Wednesday, October 22, 2014

28mm Pulp Character for 'Eldritch Horror': Brother Anastasios Sangarangos - Vrykolakas (Vampire) Hunter


Our gaming group enjoys board games almost as much as pushing miniatures around (Gasp! Sacre bleu!) and one of our current favourites is 'Eldritch Horror' by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). 



'Eldritch Horror' is a cooperative game which is set in the world of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos (similar in theme to FFG's 'Arkham Horror' but significantly streamlined). The players work together, investigating exotic locations around the globe, gathering clues and combating monsters all in order to thwart the coming of an ancient evil who is set on the world's destruction. The game is very well designed, giving a brisk-paced and very challenging romp which plays out like a rip-roaring cinematic adventure. 

At the beginning of each game every player needs to select a pre-designed character from the dozen provided (though I understand that there will be more featured in an upcoming expansion). The characters represent a gambit of the great archetypes. Some are cleft-chinned, two-fisted heroes, a few are well connected politicians and debutantes while others are unassuming academic-types who can harness arcane spells of incredible power.  

Example of the stock Character Cards from 'Eldritch Horror'.
We've played the game enough now that we've tried out all the characters numerous times, enjoying each one's strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless, always liking to tinker, I've decided to make up characters for the game which correspond to each member of our gaming group or are tongue-in-cheek sendups of friends and family. 

Each of these new characters has it's own custom designed card and a corresponding figure to represent them on the game board. Some of these characters I've already shown in a previous post (my apologies for the repetition for some), but as a brief recap they are:

Captain Peter Douglas (retired Royal Navy)

Captain Douglas is a grizzled veteran of the Great War where he made a reputation for himself as a hard-driving commander of a destroyer. He gained both his D.S.C and his prized 'Broomhandle' Mauser from a boarding action where he and his crew captured a light cruiser off the coast of Africa. (The same Mauser shattered his left arm, when he was wounded by the German cruisers captain.)

Major Marty 'Gimme' Mohr (League of Nations League)

Like Douglas, Mohr is also a veteran of the First World War, but that is where the likeness ends. 'Gimme' Mohr ended his Great War as a German Stormtrooper, where he was ultimately captured, severely wounded, entering the outskirts of Paris... by himself. (From this, he has the unique distinction to have personally marked the furthest point the Imperial German army had advanced on the Western Front.) His martial skills were quickly recognized by his captors and he was quietly recruited into the secret 'League of Nations League'.

Lieutenant Jarmilla 'The Hand' Fedorak (League of Nations League)

Jarmila is also a valued member of the elite 'League of Nations League'.  As a teenager she was a member of a Ukrainian nationalist group who fought with the Whites during the Russian Civil War. She attracted attention to herself when it was found that she could, through shear force force of will, throw devastating shock waves from her withered right hand. The League has helped her harness and focus her powers through arcane psychic training and utilizing a unique power gauntlet developed by the renown Nikola Tesla.

The new character I wish to debut today is...

Anastasios Sangarangos, Brother of the Order of Alexander, renown slayer of the undead (Vrykolakas in Greek) and keeper of the Faith.



In fact Anastasios is the real name of our friend Stacy from our gaming group. Stacy is quite proud of his Greek heritage and so I thought for fun I'd make up a character (and select a figure) to reflect this.



For Anastasios' character sheet, I scanned an original card from the game in high-resolution, imported it into Photoshop and then stripped out the contextual information to create one with blank values. Now I can design cards for each member of our gaming group at will. The power is all mine...Mwhahaha!!


This 28mm figure is from the Victorian Steampunk range offered by Brigade Games. Great,  characterful and clean sculpts that I can heartily recommend.



It will be fun to see how Stacy's character works out in the game. I just need to dream up some stats for that funky automatic crossbow he's toting...

Next up: Hmm, Romans or Gladiators or more Pulp Characters - perhaps all three! We'll see what the week brings.

38 comments:

  1. Really nice looking characters.
    cheers

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  2. Very nice stuff! Great work matching figures to characters.

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    1. Thanks Edwin, yes, dreaming up the stats, special abilities and hunting down that perfect miniature is great fun.

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  3. Absolutely superb Curt. Not heard of the game before so will need to investigate a little further, but the creation of bespoke characters is just wonderful.

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    1. Cheers Michael. The game is very well designed and presented - I highly recommend it if you enjoy the Cthulhu 'oeuvre'.

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  4. Lovely looking and painted character. I think he'll come in handy for Empire of the dead I shall have to try and get hold of one.

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    1. Yes, all of the packs from Brigade would probably be good fit for EotD.

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  5. All the characters look great Curt and I really enjoy the imagination you put into creating for them. I especially like the bit about the German gent getting the farthest into France during WWI.:-)

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks Christopher! Yes, the character design is great fun as I get to surreptitiously tease/flatter the members of the group.

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  6. Fantastic minis - the game looks fun too

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    1. Thanks Miles. Yes, it's a great game - even the ladies seem to enjoy it (probably due to the great period feel and the fact that it's not competitive).

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  7. Fantastic minis. I´m thinking about them for their use in "Strange Aeons". Great idea to represent your friends with these figures.

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    1. Thanks Juan! Yes, all of these will get double-billing for our Strange Aeons games as well.

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  8. Great looking figure my friend. I realy like the slightly subdued yellow in combination with the blue. Thanks also for the pointer to this game. Could be interesting for some gaming nights with the missus.

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    1. Thanks Nick! The game scales nicely from 1 to 8 people. Sarah I have played it together and have had a lot of laughs with it. A typical game lasts around 3 hours.

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  9. What a cracking paint job. Pulptastic sir!

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  10. It's always fun personalizing characters for your gaming group. Well done, sir!

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    1. Thanks Robert! Yes, it's great to breath some 'down home' personality into the games we play. The next one I'd like to tackle is the boardgame 'Spartacus' - it would be fun to have each gladiatorial ludus custom designed for each player rather than picking the stock cards.

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  11. Great stuff Curt. I have played Elder Sign several times and find it great fun too.

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    1. Thanks Scott. Yes, Elder Sign is a great game. The iPad app version is very good as well (it helps to while away a flight).

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  12. What a splendid character. I do so look forward to seeing more of the same sort of thing. Bravo sir.

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  13. Well done Curt. When do we get see the Campbell figure? Or would you delegate that to one your colleagues?
    Looking forward to blasting monsters!,
    Cheers
    PD

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    1. Haha! I do have a couple of ideas for my alter ego, but more on that later.

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  14. Great work dude - awesome figure, awesome paint job and I love the project!

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    1. Thanks Greg. You'll be happy to know that I'm working on your figure and card as well. :)

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  15. Excellent characters, Curt. Your gaming group sounds like a great bunch too.

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    1. Thanks Dean. Yes, they are a very congenial mob of reprobates to be sure! ;)

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  16. A really nice figure for an excellent project.
    Actually Eldritsch Horror sound very interesting as well...

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    1. Thanks Stefan. I can highly recommend the game for an nice evening's diversion.

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  17. Can't wait to see Major Mohr's "Chariot Flip" ability.

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    1. Haha! Yes, we'll have to see how we can work your 'specialty' in...

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  18. The figures look great and I love how you've done the card. I have only played Eldritch Horror once and need to revisit it. The main problem I have is no one to play with. I need to try the solo version. The one thing that irks me about FFG's Cthulhu games is the fact that they don't seem to have a concept of how much table space people realistically have. It seems impossible to fit the board and game components in front of each player on a standard dining room table. I don't get it.

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    1. Thanks Sean! Our group has played a zillion games of Arkham Horror and find the new streamlined mechanics of Eldritch Horror makes for a game with a smaller footprint. This being said, EH still requires a good sized dining room table to set up four players comfortably due to the amount of cards in the game.

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  19. Cracking figures Curt!
    Just the sort to take on those Innsmouth folks you posted recently!

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    1. Thanks Paul! They should do the trick until something MUCH larger and creepier comes along...

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